Jerusalem: the key to peace

摘要

Cities with walls in their hearts are never happy places. Jerusalem is again becoming one of these. From the war of 1948 till the war of 1967, the armistice line between Israel and Jordan ran through Jerusalem, dividing the Jewish west from the Arab east. After capturing Jerusalem in 1967, Israel said the reunited city would be its eternal capital. Now the concrete and barbed wire are back. Before long, the "security barrier" Israel is building in and round the occupied West Bank will bisect its own capital. But as our special report on page 23 explains, the new wall does not follow the old border: it swallows into Israel both the new Jewish suburbs Israel built in east Jerusalem after 1967 and most of the Arab city. When the wall is finished, and if its gates are closed, Arab Jerusalem will then be cut off from its hinterland in the West Bank.